Here's an interesting article I read today in Yahoo news. Enjoy!

Buyer Beware: The Many Ways Retailers Can Trick You - Yahoo! News

I found that article very interesting. I like how they frame the article as "tricking" the consumer, when in reality all they're using is good sales techniques. Oh! The poor consumer, when will us nasty business owners quite preying on their weakened souls!

I dunno, I really don't see how this is tricky...

but I do agree that most of the sales price tactics many businesses use is pretty shady.

Retailers that have sales every other week like clockwork throughout the year drive me nuts. At least the mattress stores seem to have a good reason for their sales, usually tied into some holiday, but there's never a month that goes by without an excuse for a sale.

I think the whole MSRP thing is a joke too, and I can't stand businesses that advertise 1/2 off (an already over inflated MSRP) just to get you in the store to sell you something at close to what it normally retails for.

I guess when you don't have any other way to differentiate yourself from your competitors and give them good reasons to do business with you, you have to be crafty to extract as much as you can from your customers. Thankfully the internet has helped level the field a bit and given consumers more of an edge.

Steve

Yea... let's beat down the retail stores who already make single digit net profits and are now are suppose to compete with internet prices. I'm convinced that retail is one of the toughest business models you can be in.

Utter rubbish. When will the media learn the difference between "trickery" and "the norm".

All us "retailers" may as well write an article entitled...

Caution Citizen: The Many Ways Propaganda And Hype Is Embedded In Your Mind By Tireless Money-Grabbing Exploitational Media Tycoons

When I read the article, I thought, "How is this trickery? Most people are probably aware of these tactics anyway."

Maybe some tactics are a bit shady though.

People don't understand the difference between directing people in an ethical way, and manipulating them.

If you're buying a car and I say, "What color do you want it in?" If they answer, "red," that's because they REALLY want a car in the first place. The question is therefore to prevent them from doing something we all do... procrastinate.

But if they really didn't want a car, they could simply say, "I'm not sure I want any car at any color, yet."

I've said this and I'll say it again...

Great salesmanship is not about inducing action. Not at all. If the market is targeted... if the market approached you first (if they visited your website or entered your store)... then they ARE targeted. They are in the market. They are interested.

Your job, therefore, is not to induce a sale (because it's what they want, too), but to prevent procrastination.

Again, as they saying goes, "People hate to be sold, but they love to buy."

So if we help them buy, are we unethical???

No.

If we pressure them into buying something they really don't need nor want, that's manipulation. That's trickery. And it's illegal or at least unethical.

(Especially if we induce a sale based on false or misleading information.)

People who write those types of articles are usually socialistic, elitist, or downright against any form of marketing whatsoever.

Bottom line?

I was watching Penn & Teller's "Bullsh*t" on DVD. (We have all first 5 seasons, and season 6 is on right now.)

One of the shows was about hypnosis, and how hypnosis (in the form people teach/preach it) is bull. Why do some people get hypnotized very easily while others don't? Why are some people susceptible to hypnosis and others aren't.

As one Vegas hypnotist said in an interview on the show, "People get hypnotized, get on stage and make an a** of themselves BECAUSE they want to."

Same thing with selling.

People are not tricked (at least not with the premise under which the article above was written). People are induced in taking an action they already want to take.

Big difference.

As famous sales trainer Brian Tracy said in "The Psychology of Selling"...

"A man who's forced against his will... is of the same opinion still."

And that's what selling is NOT about. It's not about trickery, or pressure, or deception. (Those are genuinely unethical and some downright illegal.)

It's about preventing the buyer from procrastinating from making a good buying decision THEY ALREADY WANT TO MAKE.

It's about helping them buy.

Not selling them.

Capish?

Capish.

You're absolutely right of course Michel. However I think the subtle use of NLP was massively overplayed in the article in question. Hyped up, and left for dead, one could argue.

I guess that's a reporter's job however, much as it is ours, to kick butt and create kickbutt results for ourselves (and those of you who have them, your clients too).